


Fortitude

by fourteenlines



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Future Tense, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:08:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22261438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fourteenlines/pseuds/fourteenlines
Summary: She will rise in the morning and go to sleep in the middle of the night.
Relationships: C. J. Cregg/Simon Donovan
Kudos: 13





	Fortitude

**Author's Note:**

> Set after 3.22. Originally posted circa 2002. Written for the Future Tense challenge at The Bordello.

She will rise in the morning and go to sleep in the middle of the night. She will make coffee after she swats at her alarm clock, and eat take-out for lunch, and have a glass of brandy before bed. She will walk into her office, and then to her press room, with her head held high, and she'll convince them her life is as ordered as it's ever been. She will put on this face for the world.

She won't cry for him again. It would be too risky, and not just for her reputation.

She will live each day no differently from the last. Toby will say, "Are you all right, CJ?" and she'll smile, not too widely, and answer, "Of course." And Sam will say, "He was a good man," and she'll tell him he has lettuce in his teeth. It will be a lie.

Josh won't look at her for perhaps a day, and she won't look back.

The President will send her flowers. Carol will look up at her with big, teary eyes. Charlie will tell her, quite honestly, that he's sorry.

They will bury him at Arlington, and she'll take a rare afternoon off to attend the funeral.

Her stalker will go to prison, but not for nearly long enough.

And she will rise in the morning and go to sleep in the middle of the night.


End file.
